STEAM TURBINE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 14

STEAM TURBINE

INVENTOR'S DEATH

■^fCACE IN MODERN LIFE

In the.course of au appreciation, of the late Sir Charles Parsons, inventor of -the steam -tur-bine,-th& '■?-Hew--York-."Herald-Tribune" in a recent issue ' says :-r" ..... ".- ■.'.'.-'■'i ;i ,■"'■'.■ ■■"-.-. To.read of the death of '■ Sir Charles PaisonsiS; to catch a; sudden, glimpse of the curious and often unsuspected foundations upon which our. age rests. .Outside;of engineering- circles his name •was not widely known, or- if known 5t all.was recognised only as the name o£ : a.steam turbine rather than that or the man who designed it. Yet nearly -ail the navies and liner, fleets' of the world are to-day driven through the seas.in part by Sir.Charles's inventive imagination!. Lights are lit and wheels are turned- and electricity bills kept down and political speeches made or revised because he was able to develop a. prime mover -which got more iorse-power out of a ton of coal or a cubic-foot of steam than was possible . with earlier. engines. ■■ ,

.The .history o£ modern times is the history'of the efficient- development and. application of power resources. To this history Sir Charles Parsons made a,, notable contribution. Forty years ago, when, he was working put. his turbine, the reciprocating steam engine had been developed, from' its first painfully wasteful beginnings to a fairly high state of efficiency. But that com; plicated and impressive system of flying cranks and rhythmically running piston-rods was still a costly mechanism for transforming coal into power. Sir Charles worked out the fashion ia which the turbine principle could be usefully I applied to stationary pr marine power plant requirements. His steam yacht-Turbinia; modelled like a torpedo. boat t and designed to prove to doubting admiralties what" his turbines couW do, came out -in 1597. Those -.witirranrinterest..in., such.-.things may

remember her pictures, for she became a famous ship. Speeds and efficiencies theretofore impossible were brought at once within reach of the designers^ and quickly, in torpedo boats and cruisers, then in battleships, liners, and ashore, reciprocating engines were be-ing-replaced by the unimpressive little steel boxes that' were to jack the world's tempo up another notch^ •There have been many improvements since; some effected by Sir Ckarles himself,, and other developments, like the Biesel'engine, or the' much-talked-of mercury boiler. Technical development has" been organised'to-day, so that it-is much more rapid than it .used, to be,: and moTe-continuous, until there is less chance of any one mind having so deep an influence •■ upon : the . times thro.ugh-a technical invention. .But Sjr Charles's-name remains to remind us" low'far we .aro creatures of the I efficient- application of mechanical powers'.- ; -.'■■ ■"■ •' ,